In its relationship with Governor George W. Bush, the Capitol press corps is usually well-behaved. That, in part, is because the Governor has eliminated the adversarial relationship that normally separates the press from elected officials. The Governor, in fact, is so amiable that he is disarming, often departing a press conference with a friendly gesture - while Press Secretary Karen Hughes hangs on to fight with reporters.

Hughes is rarely reluctant to fight. When the Governor released his budget in January, the pack got a little unruly and pressed him about his failure to include in the budget the sales tax holiday he had promised while campaigning. After the Governor departed, Hughes spent ten minutes with reporters, arguing that Governor Bush had made no promises while campaigning but only stated the positions he supported. "In the future, we'll have to say, 'He broke a campaign position,'" a wire service reporter told an angry Hughes.

Yet now and again - despite best the efforts of Karen Hughes - reporters insist that the Governor answer a question he clearly doesn't wish to answer. Such was the case on the ante-penultimate day of the session, when Governor Bush invited reporters in for a bill signing - in this instance, the Children's Health Insurance Program bill.

Press coverage during a legislative session is event-driven and immediate, so by the end of May no one seemed too interested in the fact that in February the Governor had tried to set CHIP eligibility levels so high that 200,000 of the 500,000 children who will now be covered by the bill's provisions would have been excluded.

What mattered at the moment was that the end of the session was two days away, and a House-Senate conference committee was deadlocked over different versions of the education bill. To break the impasse, Senate Republicans had proposed taking $250 million out of kindergarten and pre-kindergarten, and remedial programs for ninth graders - in order to have enough money to fund tax cuts the Governor had promised (or positioned) when the session began. Reporters wanted the Governor to take a position on cutting kindergarten funding to provide more money for the $2 billion that he wanted in tax cuts. One reporter after another asked him about kindergarten vs. tax cuts, but it seemed the Governor didn't want to define a position or make a promise:

What do you think about taking a quarter of a million dollars out of the education bill and putting it into tax cuts?

Negotiations are still ongoing, when it comes to the final form of the education bill. Let's just see what happens. I'm confident I'm going to have a good education bill that I'll be able to sign. I believe we are going to have a very good education package that will have teacher pay, and good strong property tax cuts, as well as sales tax cuts and business tax cuts.

If you had to choose between tax cuts and kindergarten, what would it be?

I think it's best, that you'll see, as the day works, you will see we will end up with a good package that all of Texas can live with.

Is mandatory kindergarten important to you?

Mandatory kindergarten will not be in the bill. That's already been decided.

What is your position on mandatory kindergarten?

I'll be happy with the bill if it doesn't have mandatory kindergarten.

What's wrong with mandatory kindergarten?

We can't afford it in the state of Texas. As I understand it, about 85 percent, as I understand it, 80 percent of the children go to kindergarten anyway.

Why can't we afford it?

Because there's other priorities, as well. I think the thing to do is wait and see how the bill comes out of the conference committee. And wait and see that the bill will be good for Texas.

But in your priorities, tax cuts are more important than mandatory kindergarten.

My priority is a fully financed education system should go hand in hand with tax cuts. Wait until you see what the product is before you are guessing. I know you're anxious.

But there will be tax cuts and there won't be mandatory kindergarten.

There will not be mandatory kindergarten. That decision was made a couple of
weeks ago.

So in your priorities, tax cuts are more important than mandatory kindergarten?

My priority is education funding. There's $3.8 billion up for education funding. My priority is teacher pay. My priority is social promotion. My priority is tax cuts. And I think that we're going to end up with a good session.

[Karen Hughes, interjecting: Let me make sure everybody understands. If any school district chooses to have mandatory all-day kindergarten, the state funds that right now. That is already in the state budget, right now.]

Don't [some schools] choose not to have it because they don't have enough money?

Governor Bush: Most schools do. This issue - let's wait and see how the bill turns out - I think we are going to have a good bill.

Governor, some people are saying that you are indecisive and refuse to take a position, as you did on the Hate Crimes Bill. Here you are not saying whether you support that $250 million dollars being taken out of education and put toward tax cuts.

This is an ever-changing process. People can say what they want to say. I think when it is all said and done, you can talk to the people who were involved in the process. I've stated my opinions, and I've laid out an agenda that's good for Texas. And we'll see what part of the agenda is enacted into law.

Kevin Bailey is not so circumspect, and he's not running for president. The Houston Democrat, who chairs the progressive Legislative Study Group, said that "taking money from kindergarten to use it for tax cuts is bad policy." Bailey said there was no disagreement in the L.S.G., the House Black Caucus, and the House Mexican-American Caucus: "Everybody agreed - as far as I know there was complete consensus - that we were not going to support taking money away from kindergarten, pre-K and remedial programs for ninth-graders, to pay for tax cuts." The L.S.G. urged House Public Education Committee Chair Paul Sadler to oppose the Republican raid on kindergarten funding in the conference committee. Sadler prevailed.

During floor debate a week earlier, Dallas Democrat Domingo García, in the cliché of the session, had "raised the bar" on kindergarten, arguing that Bush's tax giveback to homeowners was not warranted when many children in the state do not have access to kindergarten. García had the Texas Education Agency run the numbers to determine what fully funded mandatory kindergarten for all children in the state would cost, and he made his proposal in an amendment to the education bill. "For $1.2 billion," García said, "we could provide free kindergarten for every child in the state of Texas. And we could reduce the class size from kindergarten through fourth grade to eighteen students per teacher."

The amendment failed. "At least it demonstrated what we could be getting for the money the Governor is using for tax cuts," García said.

The Governor's tax giveback, for this biennium, will be almost $2 billion.

- L.D.